1 Kings 12:16

12:16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king, “We have no portion in David, no share in the son of Jesse! ¹  Return to your homes, O Israel! ²  Now, look after your own dynasty, O David!” ³  So Israel returned to their homes. ⁴ 

Isaiah 55:3-4

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ⁵ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ⁶  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ⁷ 

55:4 Look, I made him a witness to nations, ⁸ 

a ruler and commander of nations.”

Jeremiah 30:9

30:9 But they will be subject ⁹  to the Lord their God

and to the Davidic ruler whom I will raise up as king over them. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 33:17

33:17 For I, the Lord, promise: “David will never lack a successor to occupy ¹¹  the throne over the nation of Israel. ¹² 

Ezekiel 34:23-24

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹³  He will feed them and will be their shepherd. 34:24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince ¹⁴  among them; I, the Lord, have spoken!

Ezekiel 37:22-25

37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ¹⁵  37:23 They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness ¹⁶  by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ¹⁷  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ¹⁸  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

Amos 9:11

The Restoration of the Davidic Dynasty

9:11 “In that day I will rebuild the collapsing hut ¹⁹  of David.

I will seal its ²⁰  gaps,

repair its ²¹  ruins,

and restore it to what it was like in days gone by. ²² 

Acts 15:16-18

15:16 ‘After this ²³  I ²⁴  will return,

and I will rebuild the fallen tent ²⁵  of David;

I will rebuild its ruins and restore ²⁶  it,

15:17 so that the rest of humanity ²⁷  may seek the Lord,

namely, ²⁸  all the Gentiles ²⁹  I have called to be my own,’ ³⁰  says the Lord, ³¹  who makes these things 15:18 known ³²  from long ago. ³³ 

[12:16]  ¹ sn We have no portion in David; no share in the son of Jesse. Their point seems to be that they have no familial relationship with David that brings them any benefits or places upon them any obligations. They are being treated like outsiders.

[12:16]  ² tn Heb “to your tents, Israel.” The word “return” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[12:16]  ³ tn Heb “Now see your house, David.”

[12:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “went to their tents.”

[55:3]  ⁵ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ⁶ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[55:4]  ⁸ sn Ideally the Davidic king was to testify to the nations of God’s greatness (cf. Pss 18:50 HT [18:49 ET]; 22:28 HT [22:27 ET]). See J. H. Eaton, Kingship in the Psalms (SBT), 182-84.

[30:9]  ⁹ tn The word “subject” in this verse and “subjugate” are from the same root word in Hebrew. A deliberate contrast is drawn between the two powers that they will serve.

[30:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and to David their king whom I will raise up for them.”

[33:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a man shall not be cut off to David [i.e., belonging to the Davidic line] sitting on the throne of the house of Israel.”

[33:17]  ¹² sn It should be noted once again that the reference is to all Israel, not just to Judah (cf. Jer 23:5-6; 30:9).

[34:23]  ¹³ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[34:24]  ¹⁴ sn The messianic king (“David”) is called both “king” and “prince” in 37:24-25. The use of the term “prince” for this king facilitates the contrast between this ideal ruler and the Davidic “princes” denounced in earlier prophecies (see 7:27; 12:10, 12; 19:1; 21:25; 22:6, 25).

[37:22]  ¹⁵ sn Jeremiah also attested to the reuniting of the northern and southern kingdoms (Jer 3:12, 14; 31:2-6).

[37:23]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.

[37:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[9:11]  ¹⁹ tn The phrase translated “collapsing hut” refers to a temporary shelter (cf. NASB, NRSV “booth”) in disrepair and emphasizes the relatively weakened condition of the once powerful Davidic dynasty. Others have suggested that the term refers to Jerusalem, while still others argue that it should be repointed to read “Sukkoth,” a garrison town in Transjordan. Its reconstruction would symbolize the rebirth of the Davidic empire and its return to power (e.g., M. E. Polley, Amos and the Davidic Empire, 71-74).

[9:11]  ²⁰ tc The MT reads a third feminine plural suffix, which could refer to the two kingdoms (Judah and Israel) or, more literally, to the breaches in the walls of the cities that are mentioned in v. 4 (cf. 4:3). Some emend to third feminine singular, since the “hut” of the preceding line (a feminine singular noun) might be the antecedent. In that case, the final nun (ן) is virtually dittographic with the vav (ו) that appears at the beginning of the following word.

[9:11]  ²¹ tc The MT reads a third masculine singular suffix, which could refer back to David. However, it is possible that an original third feminine singular suffix (יה-, yod-hey) has been misread as masculine (יו-, yod-vav). In later Hebrew script a ה (he) resembles a יו- (yod-vav) combination.

[9:11]  ²² tn Heb “and I will rebuild as in days of antiquity.”

[15:16]  ²³ tn Grk “After these things.”

[15:16]  ²⁴ sn The first person pronoun I refers to God and his activity. It is God who is doing this.

[15:16]  ²⁵ tn Or more generally, “dwelling”; perhaps, “royal tent.” According to BDAG 928 s.v. σκηνή the word can mean “tent” or “hut,” or more generally “lodging” or “dwelling.” In this verse (a quotation from Amos 9:11) BDAG refers this to David’s ruined kingdom; it is possibly an allusion to a king’s tent (a royal tent). God is at work to reestablish David’s line (Acts 2:30-36; 13:32-39).

[15:16]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 86 s.v. ἀνορθόω places this verb under the meaning “to build someth. up again after it has fallen, rebuild, restore,” but since ἀνοικοδομέω (anoikodomew, “rebuild”) has occurred twice in this verse already, “restore” is used here.

[15:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “so that all other people.” The use of this term follows Amos 9:11 LXX.

[15:17]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) introduces an explanatory clause that explains the preceding phrase “the rest of humanity.” The clause introduced by καί (kai) could also be punctuated in English as a parenthesis.

[15:17]  ²⁹ tn Or “all the nations” (in Greek the word for “nation” and “Gentile” is the same).

[15:17]  ³⁰ tn Grk “all the Gentiles on whom my name has been called.” Based on well-attested OT usage, the passive of ἐπικαλέω (epikalew) here indicates God’s ownership (“all the Gentiles who belong to me”) or calling (“all the Gentiles whom I have called to be my own”). See L&N 11.28.

[15:17]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Amos 9:11-12 LXX. James demonstrated a high degree of cultural sensitivity when he cited a version of the text (the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament) that Gentiles would use.

[15:18]  ³² sn Who makes these things known. The remark emphasizes how God’s design of these things reaches back to the time he declared them.

[15:18]  ³³ sn An allusion to Isa 45:21.